Transforming the old into the new - with small yet clever changes
Situated in the heart of the fashion district in Paris we drew inspiration from couturier fashion designers for this refurbishment of an old Citaidnes, one of the oldest buildings for a Citadines in Paris. The property is actually two buildings linked together, with some of the rooms having duplex apartments and quirky spaces looking out onto the atrium that you can see from the lobby photographs. This was a complex project with more than 20 room types in a hotel with only 75 rooms!
The fashion hub
The orignal idea of fashion was loved by the client, so we developed this idea and introduced mannequins into the rooms, had fashion photography as artwork and also we took inspriaiton from Chanel’s colour palette with the pinks and purples and black accents. The flooring was inspired by the Hausemann style, when the wood chevron was used in many of the old Parisian apartments in this area of Paris. We used this idea in the florring of the lobby but with tiles in black and two greys and white.
Chanel inspired
Unlike every other Citadines Hotel this hotel had a brief of including concept rooms specifically targeted to fashion buyers during fashion week who would spend more on the room rate. We came up with 8 concept rooms based on courturiers including Chanel, Gaultier, Lanvin, Dior, Schiaparelli. The Chanel room including a bespoke designed four-poster bed, mannequins that we also designed and an open ‘boudoir’ wardrone concept with quilted-style wallpaper inside it. The wallcolour is the classic Chanel salmon pink, the colour of the brands first perfume by Chanel.
The Spirit of Paris
We worked with French photographer Frederic Ducout to help us with the artwork for the interiors of the standard room types. We loved the site in Paris at the Palais Royal, where stands the famous sculpture, created by 260 black and white striped columns, constructed by Daniel Buren in 1985-1986. We were inspired by these columns for their graphic effect and for the iconic image of the Palais Royal – the juxtoposition of the old with the new, just as we were working with old and new architecture for our hotel concept.
A variety of room types
The standard room below shows the artwork above the bed by photographer Frederic Ducout. The colour scheme for the rooms was born out of a desire to work with gold metal and gold effect finishes. The rich dark aubergine worked very well then as an accent for the cushions we chose a pale turqoise, a colour that was also introduced as a lamiate finish for the bathroom door – just for something different. We applied this standard design to the other 20 room types, except the Chanel room above which as explained has it’s own unique theme.
